Spanish PM calls for Israel to be banned at Eurovision: “What we cannot allow is double standards”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called for Israel to be banned at the Eurovision Song Contest.

• READ MORE: Eurovision 2024 – fans and boycotters speak: “This is bigger than the contest”

The Eurovision finale was held in Switzerland last Saturday (May 17), with Austria’s entry JJ winning the contest. Israel placed second with their entry Yuval Raphael, achieving the highest number of public votes this year.

However, Sánchez has called for a ban on their participation due to their current conflict with Palestine. Since the October 7 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen at the Nova music festival, 62,614 Palestinians and 1,139 Israelis have been killed (as per Al Jazeera, May 17).

At a press conference in Madrid, Sánchez noted how “nobody was up in arms when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began three years ago and [Russia] had to leave international competitions and could not take part, as we have just seen, in Eurovision. Therefore Israel shouldn’t either, because what we cannot allow is double standards in culture.”

Sánchez went on to express solidarity with “the people of Palestine who are experiencing the injustice of war and bombardment”.

The European Broadcasting Union, who organise Eurovision, have been approached by NME for comment.

Previous to the finale, over 70 former Eurovision contestants signed a letter calling for Israel and their broadcaster KAN to be banned from the competition. Signees included 2023 UK contestant Mae Muller, Portuguese singer Fernando Tordo and Ireland’s Charlie McGettigan, who won back in 1994.

The letter said that the inclusion of Israel in the 2024 edition led to it being “the most politicised, chaotic and unpleasant in the competition’s history”, and accused its broadcaster KAN of being “complicit in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza and the decades-long regime of apartheid and military occupation against the entire Palestinian people”.

Finally, the letter argued that the EBU allowing Israel to perform would lead to “normalising and whitewashing its crimes”.

Since the letter, Irish broadcaster RTÉ has asked the EBU for a discussion on Israel’s participation, and pro-Palestinian protests erupted at the Eurovision dress rehearsal during Israel’s performance.

A Eurovision crew member was also hit with paint as two protesters attempted to disrupt Raphael’s performance during the final.

In other news, NME spoke to this year’s third place entry Tommy Cash about his absurdist song ‘Espresso Macchiato’.

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